Reposing under my laurels!  No, no, I am reposing in a much better tent, under the tester of my own bed.  I am not obliged to rise by break of day and be dressed for the drawing-room; I may saunter in my slippers till dinner-time, and not make bows till my back is as much out of joint as my Lord Temple’s.  In short, I should die of the gout or fatigue, if I was to be Polonius to a Princess for another week.  Twice a-day we made a pilgrimage to almost every heathen temple in that province that they call a garden; and there is no sallying out of the house without descending a flight of steps as high as St. Paul’s.  My Lord Besborough would have dragged me up to the top of the column, to see all the kingdoms of the earth; but I would not, if he could have given them to me.  To crown all, because we live under the line, and that we were all of us giddy young creatures, of near threescore, we supped in a grotto in the Elysian fields, and were refreshed with rivers of dew and gentle showers that dripped from all the trees, and put us in mind of the heroic ages, when kings and queens were shepherds and shepherdesses, and lived in caves, and were wet to the skin two or three times a-day.  Well! thank Heaven, I am emerged from that Elysium, and once more in a Christian country!—­Not but, to say the truth, our pagan landlord and landlady were very obliging, and the party went off much better than I expected.  We had no very recent politics, though volumes about the Spanish war; and as I took care to give every thing a ludicrous turn as much as I could, the Princess was diverted, the six days rolled away, and the seventh is my sabbath; and I promise you i will do no manner of work, I, nor my cat, nor my dog, nor any thing that is mine.  For this reason, I entreat that the journey to Goodwood may not take place before the 12th of August, when I will attend you.  But this expedition to Stowe has quite blown up my intended one to Wentworth Castle:  I have not resolution enough left for such a journey.  Will you and Lady Ailesbury come to Strawberry before, or after Goodwood?  I know you like being dragged from home as little as I do; therefore you shall place that visit just when it is most convenient to you.

I came to town the night before last, and am just returning.  There are not twenty people in all London.  Are not you in despair about the summer?  It is horrid to be ruined in coals in June and July.  Adieu.  Yours ever.

Letter 11 To George Montagu, Esq.  Strawberry Hill, July 14, 1770. (page 37)